


Before everything collapses

by livinginadaydream (orphan_account)



Category: Disney RPF, Jonas Brothers
Genre: Incest, M/M, Pre-Slash, Steampunk AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-02
Updated: 2010-07-02
Packaged: 2017-10-12 17:57:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/127517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/livinginadaydream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The doctor shows the Jonas family a mansion, old, falling apart, but magical. Joseph is too curious and somehow it leads him into danger. Nick has to save him, but it's hard when everything is much too big, and much too new, and there are machines and animals that don't care about anything but destruction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before everything collapses

His house was glorious once, clean and almost as if no one lived there, unearthly. No one knows, exactly, when he passed, if his death was natural, or related to his outlandish surroundings. The house is sinking, it's the only way to put it, because the waters of the lake, the small ocean that almost makes this mansion an island, have dug through, made a river, and now it's got pull, and someday, the doctor says, there will be a flood, and it will tear this house from its feeble foundation.

The house appears to be half gone already, maybe from erosion, but it doesn't seem feasible when this man appeared to be so great. How could he sit in all this glory and not first build a sturdy bottom for it to rest on? You don't think it's possible. That worries you, has you wondering what could have made this building crumble enough to slip half into the water.

You, your family, and the doctor walk out of the main hall onto a deck, a patio, presuming it was once much larger, an outdoor hallway trailing around half this large mansion, and you can't help but wish it was still there, just to see how narrow it looked when you stand at the farthest, straightest point from its end. The floor is yellowed, beautiful with all its cracks filled with dirt. There are three columns behind you, and between them you see the edge of land, large trees bent over the water, holding onto each others' limbs. Perhaps they're afraid to fall in.

Your brother isn't. He steps closer to the edge where the floor is dipping into the water, where the home has gotten darker, and everything has melted away so that it looks like a cave. You follow him in, just as curious as he is, but more cautious, wary of his steps, afraid he'll slip. The doctor is watching closely, but your family is still admiring the view. Once inside the cave, you hold onto your brothers' elbow as your mouth drops open. Perhaps the hall had crumbled into an underground piece of the house, because it most definitely is a cave you are standing in when your calves are in the water, and his knees are.

There's glass, and it's like an aquarium. There must be some sort of block, once you go deeper, keeping the water at the level it is, high enough to have your head a foot under, you presume, if you just keep walking, waves of water pushed in over time. You see what you think might be a walrus, and you're fascinated as it swims close. You feel like you recognize it, it's silly. You reach out to the glass, and it moves slowly away, and you see another shadow of something in the more distant water.

He's watching you, your brother, but then there's a clap of water, and you both turn your attention to the opening that shows the world passed this mansion you already can't believe you're in. Your whole family and the doctor is looking too, and perhaps it is only the doctor who doesn't gasp when from out of the water comes what looks like a snake, but it's gold, it's a machine, and you know because the metal is melded over each other at the neck so that it curves into the head, and its eyes are green like tinted glass. It shines, and you can almost see the bolts when it turns the right way. "My god," your brother says beside you and you didn't noticed but your grip has tightened on him and it's so strange that it feels like he's being pulled away.

"Stop," you whisper, in false hope that he's doing it of his own accord. "Joseph," you whisper again. You can't help but be afraid that this beast is going to hear you. But as you hold your brother to your body, trying to ignore how the suction is pulling at your feet also, there comes another from the water. It looks like a dinosaur almost, but it comes half way up the snakes' neck, huge, wider than the snake that's tall enough it reaches the sky. You're both shivering now, and there's a horrible screeching as the snake bends down and snaps its jaw at the other machine. At first you think it's alive with how the sound comes out, but you know its just the metal, moving against itself.

That's when the pull becomes too great, and Joe's legs have been lifted in the water so you're curling your arm across his chest, trying to hold him, and he's absolutely silent, too scared and too in awe to say anything, to do anything. You think, for the second you can afford it, that he _wants_ to. He wants to be pulled out into the water and then he is. You lose your grip because the water is rising - or rather, you realize, you've been pulled in, sucked in deeper and the water is almost to your chin. The scream is something you can feel burning up your lungs and you want to shout at him so much, angry like its entirely his fault. He needs to stop being dangerous; its harmful to himself, and its him that you're most fragile about.

You watch wide-eyed as your brother slips through the opening, seemingly carried by the water, and his white dress shirt, and simple slacks he was wearing are floating with him. Your mother screams his name like you wanted to, and then the doctor is reaching out with his cane, tapping you on the shoulder and telling you to take it, boy, take it. You do, but you can't stop turning back to watch Joe slide under some of the trees that must have grown from the bottom of the lake, it's branches bare and like a prison, you hope a safe haven. As you're pulled from the water, you see him turn and sit up right immediately once he's inside and his hands grip the branches. He seems afraid to let go, and you just want to swim out there and grab him. You should be able to. You're the one who had control down there. He was the one being sucked out and you were the one who was holding onto him. You had the control. There should be a way for you to go out there and bring him back.

The machines are still fighting though, and it's a horrible crash, clash of metal when the dinosaur swings his tail around and slams into the snake. You're shaking cold and your mother wraps your fathers' blazer over your shoulder. "Nicholas," she says and it sounds like a whisper.

You don't turn to look at her, but at the doctor, who is looking at Joe like he's angry, but you can sense it's just the situation. He's upset that he's brought your family here and gotten your brother in trouble. Closing your eyes, you breathe deeply before sliding the jacket off of your shoulders and hand it back to your mother, giving her a grave look so she knows she can't stop you. It's presumptuous, you know, to take this upon yourself, but no one else seems to know what to do either.

Running passed them all, back into the house, you see where the house grows darker and you know that there's bound to be things you aren't going to like, but you walk into it, walk until you hit water, and then walk more as slime slides up your pant legs, swirling around your skin like it wants to take its place. You shiver, your nerves are tingling and you can hear every doubt very clearly in your mind, but you think about Joseph and you keep moving forward to the point where you're waist deep in water. For a long time, it feels, you're this deep in water, and everything looks the same as you pass and you pray that somehow, you aren't accidentally taking the same pace after the same pace, remaining stagnate.

Finally the water begins to decrease, which throws you off, because you were certain that at some point you'd be swimming, but instead you're coming out the other side with ground beneath your feet. It's all dirt. You can't find anything that is recognizable from the extravagant way this man lived. The walls are probably made completely of mold now, and branches of trees reaching over, embedding itself into something bigger, grander. You stay close to the sides because there's still water in the middle, and you fear that if you get too close, you might find yourself stepping into a crevasse where you'd get buried just enough to suffocate while clawing at some sunken flooring.

It's probably just paranoia, you tell yourself, when the hairs at the back of your neck stand up. You feel as though something is looking at you, and not only that, following you. There's too much shadow, the light kept carefully at the end of the tunnel, but you feel it and you try to stop breathing just to see if you can hear anything other than your own footsteps. You can't, but you weren't able to hold your air in for very long, your heart racing in your chest. Trying not to turn back and run the other way, you steady yourself by pushing the curls back from your face, slow movements so as not to attract anything to your location as you move through the dripping walls.

You're almost to the end when you hear it, the step of foot in water. You're not going to scream or yell, you tell yourself. You're going to keep going and you're not going to do anything other than what you already have been because it was probably nothing. It was nothing right? You wish Joesph were here. He'd jump on your back and tell you to stop being ridiculous. He'd probably put a kiss into the curls just behind your ear and you know you'd give it all away with a blush, but he wouldn't see, because you'd both be in the dark, and you'd both be trying to stay calm. Joe would be just pushing it all down so that he could help you feel safer. _You love him so much_.

You almost lose yourself to that thought, and it's slowed your pace some, but then you know, when you hear the pace picking up, it isn't in your head, and that you could ever be safe by yourself in this dark fortress is completely ridiculous, when there are machine animals bigger than life out side, and water that can suck your brother into the middle of it and endanger him just because he's got the slightest desire to know more about what they're all witnessing.

It's a split-second decision and you're not even sure you made it, but you're running, shoes slipping awkwardly against the grime that is stuck to the floor, tar-like, almost in the way it grips at you, but still wet enough to make it difficult to keep your balance. As you're running, you don't look behind you. The light is getting closer and either that's a good thing, or a really bad thing. Once whatever is chasing you can see you in the light, it may be over. You wish you knew what kind of man had lived here, what kind of contraptions and other things he would keep inside his house if those giant, man-crushing things are what he keeps just outside of it. Maybe you could figure out a way to fight for yourself if you had any inkling. Instead though, because you have to, you flee.

It's almost as soon as the light hits you in the eye and blinds you momentarily that you misstep into something, and you fall on your rear to its rough surface. You barely have time to open your eyes before you grip its sides and it begins moving, sailing across the water of the lake in what appears to be a mote, covered by the same arched branches your brother was drawn into. It's fast-moving, and there's a wind that presses a wet curl to your forehead, and you're trying just to figure out what to do, if you should jump out or stay, when the mote curves, and you see them. The snake and the dinosaur still battling. You think you can see the bubble of branches your brother is hopefully still clinging too and you sigh in happy, exhausted relief when you realize that the mote swings that way, closer to Joe and you just have to find a way to stop this thing you're in.

Looking at it, trying to grasp exactly what kind of boat you're in, you hesitate and blink. It's half of a walnut shell. A walnut shell. You keep repeating it in your mind, because either you've shrunken into a seed-sized being, or this once contained a walnut to end the hunger of fifty, maybe more. Blinking a few times, you look back up to see how close you are to Joseph. He's coming up soon, and you can actually see his outline now. Looking back to the side of you, you know it's going to hurt with how much force the current is pushing your - boat, but you know you'll have to grab onto the branches above head.

Standing up to do so is going to be difficult. There's a chance you'll fall out, but what's more, it's going to be hard to hold the walnut shell still enough for Joe to climb in, supposing he can concentrate enough to swim to you, into your alcove, the mote, avoid being sucked under the shell in the current.

Once you are aligned with Joe, you stand up and grab to the branches, holding tight, and there are bits of wood poking into your skin, trying to find a way to break through. You grit your teeth and yell out your brothers' name. You see him turning his head frantically, and then he sees you. His jaw drops and you yell for him to swim over. He seems afraid, and the current is pushing the shell under your feet. You can't lose your grip, you won't, because then who knows how long Joe will be forced to wait out there, how long it will be before the dinosaurs tail whips down upon him. You can't let that happen, you won't, so you grip the branches even tighter.

The shell though, is moving, it's slipping under your feet, and then you are forced to hold it's edge between your legs as it slips out from under you. You can't hold onto it, though, because it's pulling you down from the ceiling and that's where you need to be so that you can get to Joe. As it slides away and bumps into the cave, but does not enter - there is a wall, there is - you close your eyes and focus on staying there and yell out to your brother that he has to try.

You're strong but you aren't that strong, and you think that you're about to get swept away into the boat you were just in, because you're about to drop into the water, when there's something underneath you, butting in between your legs until you open them, terrified, hoping that this thing won't kill you, that it'll just swim on through, but it's too big, and it bucks up in the water, it's fur soaked and falling straight down the length of its body. You let go because you have to, and then you hold onto the fur at the back of its neck before you fall off. It moves, and it weaves through until it finds an opening in the mote, and it swims through, toward your brother, and you can't help it. You're in shock and you have no idea what to do or what's about to happen.

The animal swims right up to Joe and you do the only thing you can think of, you pull your older brother through the branches, glad that he's so trim and you lift him up until he grabs your shoulders and pulls himself up, settles behind you on the beasts' back. You're breathing with difficulty now, and Joe is absolutely teeth-chattering cold and shaking behind you, as he puts his arms around your hips and grips hard, pressing himself into you and you'd cover his hands with your own and rub them warm if you didn't have to hold on as the beast swims back the way you came from, just outside the current. It takes you up into the dark tunnel, and you're closing your eyes and whispering desperate 'no's before you realize that this animal is probably what had chased you out in the first place and landed you in the mote.

For a moment you think about slipping off its back, but when Joe asks if you should do just that, you shake your head no, and you keep holding on, breathing hard. Joe does kiss the curls behind your ear and you lean back into him, calming a bit when his grip on your waist tightens even more. He carries you both through the tunnel until you reach the entrance hall of the mansion, the place you ran through to get to the tunnel to find away to bring your brother back. The family and the doctor are all there and your mother is in tears, face buried in your fathers' neck, and you know how she feels and send her a sympathetic smile when he rubs her back purposely, and gets her to see that both of her sons are fine.

Frank gasps when he sees what you two are riding in on. You don't even know what it is. A horse with two-inch fur? You have no idea, but everyone aside from Frankie seems to just be happy that you're both alive. That is, except for the doctor, who seems irritated, but relieved all the same. "Oalla," he says, and your eyebrows furrow, until the animal beneath you stills, sits on the ground and you feel yourself and Joseph begin to slide off its back. Joe stands the moment he feels the ground behind him, and catches you at the waist when it looks like you won't have as smooth a landing. He pulls you back a few feet and turns you around, hugs you, and kisses your temple. You can't help but feel suddenly warm, and you think you should be the one doing this for him, but he knows you need the comfort, to feel his arms, and feel his breath against you so that you know he's okay.

When he seems to think he's done his job, and he did well, you turn to look at the doctor and are surprised to see him petting at the underneath of its head. He waves you forward patiently, a different side to this man you thought you'd never see. "This is Oalla. He is an ingenious mix-breed, the names of which, I assure you, would mean nothing. He was the house pet. Bred for his intelligence, and natural instinct to protect and guard. Something of an over-sized dog if you will." You want to point out somewhat sarcastically that there's a lot of that going on around here, but you're looking at the strange but soft face of the animal who rescued you and your brother. All you do is smile and reach out a hand, and it lets you pet down to its nose.

The doctor slides his hand down Oalla's neck, and you grin at the beast until you hear, "Come, you've had enough adventure for a century. I never should have brought you here..." Your mother and father are nodding in the background. Kevin and Danielle are already outside the door. Frankie is tugging at your fathers' arm, a boy turning into a man, and you suppose he thinks he has better things to do than look at a piece of history, something he will never again witness in his life. He's your little brother, so you smile at him when he looks at you with a short frown, knowing you're the one furthest in the house, you're the one keeping them here longer than necessary.

You feel yourself stiffen at the thought of leaving and its automatic when you open your mouth and blurt out a rushed, "Wait. Wait, isn't there a way to re-build? Isn't there a way to refurbish...? It's -"

"Nicholas," Joe says beside you, and you know. You _know_. But there's something about it that's too enchanting and you can't let go of it so easily. You don't want to leave. Or rather, you do, but you only want to so that you can make plans to have this mansion rebuilt, stabilized, and maybe find someone who knows how to contain very violent, mechanical animals.

You tug your brother by the elbow, to the side of the entry hall and you look up at the ceiling, the cobwebs, the dark cracks, the chandelier hanging from the center without even one sparkle, not a bit of shine left to it. "Joseph," you say, looking into his eyes seriously, and he's waiting patiently. You know he's afraid of this place, only because he's afraid of himself. You know, you _know_ he must really love it as much as you do, because in his eyes there's a bit of a smile. You don't have to say anything else. He takes your hand carefully between you so that it's not obvious to the rest of you, and he squeezes it. You know he's just said okay. Joe's given into you, into this place. This middle-of-nowhere but all-encompassing island of a mansion.

"It will take years, gentleman," the doctor says, stepping closer to them, noting the looks in their eyes. His bowler hat is placed perfectly on his head, and his mustache is still in place. He doesn't look the slightest bit ruffled where his hand is sat upon the crook of his cane, angled precisely against the floor. But it's there, in the creases, the lines of his face, where he looks older than he is. "You may not ever find a substantial amount of funding, and if you do, you will most-likely lose the privacy I can see you so keen on."

Joseph drops your hand then, and you lean your shoulder into his when you turn to face the doctor more deliberately. "I understand that, but we actually have rather nice-sized bank account, and our family has been loyal customers for years. I think we'll manage." You are confident, it's true, but you also understand what he's saying, and it's scary, sure, but you think that no matter how long it takes, you want this house as your own. After all, wasn't that the doctors' intentions? To show the house and win someone over to it, take it, and its debt, its madness off his hands?

Maybe he thought that it would be your father, that he would just buy the place and let it sit and rot away until he could come clean the water out and rebuild, turn it into a money-maker. It's obvious he didn't expect there to be any deadly sort of experiences had by them, or he wouldn't have shown them the outside. You want to let out a snort of laughter at the thought that your Joseph wouldn't find a way to make things more interesting, even when it was entirely unnecessary.

Whatever he thought, you've fallen in love with the place, from the walrus, to the danger, to the giant boats, the alcoves, the trees, and you've found yourself very fond of Oalla. It's no wonder the doctor had each member of your family sign papers regarding confidentiality.

"Very well," the doctor says and smooths out his already-perfect mustache. You assume it's something similar to the way your grand-dad smokes his pipe when someone pulls at his feathers. You nod, smiling wide. Underdire Lake, is to be your Estate. You and Joesphs', because you both love this place together, and he doesn't seem eager to leave your side any time soon.


End file.
